Best form of marketing for a younger crowd

The best form of marketing for a younger crowd really changes when it comes to the crowd you're trying to market to. Kids these days are forming into tighter and tighter cliques, each with unique demands, complaints, and so forth. That being said, let's look at some general rules on the best form of marketing for a younger crowd.
1. First of all, you want to avoid seeming condescending, as if you're happy enough to play along if they'll buy your product. This seems obvious, I know, but it's surprising how many campaigns aimed at younger crowds make this obvious mistake. It might, therefore, be a good idea to bring in some representatives of they very crowd you're trying to attract, and see how they feel about your plan of attack, your marketing plan. I suppose the best way to say it is: be straightforward with the younger crowd; in fact, talk to them as you'd like to be talked to. Not up, not down, just people to people. Otherwise you run the risk of corniness or smugness.

2. Now that we've got past the hard part-a sort of philosophical approach to the younger crowd-i.e., the golden rule-some more obvious things come to mind. It's good, when marketing to a younger crowd, to be aware of what's important to a younger crowd. Now, the details of your approach will depend on what you're marketing. Let's say you're marketing clothes, for example. Younger crowds like clothes; and once again, young crowds have a remarkable diversity of interests, some eclectic, some conservative, some almost Halloweeny. The point is, when marketing to a younger crowd someone has to really have their finger on several pulses at once. Not that you crowd a bunch of disparate images into one poster, or try to please everyone at once! (Unless you were just going for effect.) But it seems safe to say that the modern younger crowd wants (1) to be noticed how it's different, (2) to be noticed how it wants to adhere to certain, usually left-leaning, political values, and (3) not to be "noticed" at all, that is, not be treated like a younger crowd.
3. When marketing to a younger crowd, it almost seems like an impossible order. But companies are doing it successfully all the time. More and more companies (sticking with clothes) are diversifying their product line, and getting away from trying to be hip and cool. If something looks good, the younger crowd will buy it no matter how many supermodels you have laughing and pretending to be kids.
4. When it comes to the best places to market to younger crowds, the Internet has to be one of your first stops. It's staggering how many young people spend online on the average day. And the anonymity factor is a plus in the case of the aggressive, creative, enthusiastic marketer. Though kids are forming into cliques outside of their home, once they're at their computer terminal they're free to be whatever they want.
5. A recent study, for example, showed that the Internet is a place that places go to be other than what their schoolmates, teachers, parents, etc., decide that they are. Fantasy games, which used to be a cause for ridicule the more athletic crowd in a given high school, now find athletic types among their stoutest supporters. On the Internet, no one has to fit into a stereotype; you can advertise your wares accordingly, knowing that you'll most likely be hitting a wide cross section of youth.
Marketing for youth is both difficult and satisfying-oh, and not all that hard, either. Once again, we seem to have run into a paradox. What we're really saying here is that once you've established a good reputation with younger crowds, offering fair prices, no condescending add campaigns where people who've obviously already forgotten how to be young a nevertheless sporting around like idiots, etc.-these things can earn you a respectful following from a youthful crowd.
Finally, the best advice for companies who want to market for youth is: just be yourself. More and more studies are showing that what young people want above all else is sincerity.

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